Chapter 35
Gu Tang cooperated with “Teacher” Jiang’s instruction: “Ask away.”
Jiang Huaisheng asked him: “Do you have another boyfriend or girlfriend now?”
Gu Tang replied: “Do you think I’m that kind of person? Sleeping with someone else while in a relationship?”
Jiang Huaisheng snorted coldly: “You can’t judge a book by its cover. Who knows? That’s avoiding the question. Minus one point. Just answer yes or no.”
Gu Tang said: “No.”
“Second question, have you been in a relationship in the past five years?”
Gu Tang still answered: “No.”
Jiang Huaisheng continued to stare at Gu Tang: “Then have you slept with anyone else? Or been ambiguous with anyone?”
He wouldn’t give Gu Tang any loopholes to exploit with words. After all, some people could sleep with others casually without any feelings, purely to satisfy physical needs.
Although this possibility was low, people could be influenced by their environment. Abroad was very open, and he wasn’t sure if Gu Tang had been with other people.
Gu Tang still shook his head: “No.”
Jiang Huaisheng looked into his eyes. Gu Tang seemed to be telling the truth. He tapped the latter’s chest with the tip of the whip: “Plus one point.”
Gu Tang asked: “What about you?”
Jiang Huaisheng said: “I’m the teacher, you’re the student. Of course, I ask the questions.”
Gu Tang raised his hand: “Then, Teacher Jiang, I have a question. What about you?”
As a teacher, he should naturally lead by example and was obligated to answer students’ questions.
Jiang Huaisheng snorted coldly. Saying no would make it seem like he had remained chaste for this person.
But Gu Tang hadn’t either, there was no point in lying about this: “No. Do you think everyone is like you, a perverted mad dog who bites anyone they see?”
Gu Tang didn’t say anything, only reaching out to touch his shoulder, where Jiang Huaisheng’s teeth marks remained. Although he hadn’t drawn blood this time, the marks were still deep.
Jiang Huaisheng, ashamed and angry, took a few deep breaths. Last question: “What is our relationship now?”
His earlier speculation that Gu Tang might have been with other people wasn’t unfounded.
After all, their relationship was built on that foundation. He and Gu Tang weren’t lovers, they only slept together because of the contract, and now there wasn’t even a contract between them.
If Gu Tang could sleep with him, he could naturally sleep with others. Faced with such a perfect male body, Jiang Huaisheng could foresee that few could refuse Gu Tang’s invitation, even he couldn’t refuse.
Thinking of that possibility, he wanted to bite Gu Tang to death.
Gu Tang blinked: “A teacher-student relationship?”
After all, this was Teacher Jiang’s little classroom.
Jiang Huaisheng was amused by Gu Tang’s answer: “Say that again?”
“A symbiotic relationship.”
Gu Tang pulled Jiang Huaisheng’s hand, turned him over, and pressed him down. He used the ankle chain to restrain Jiang Huaisheng, as for the handcuffs…
Jiang Huaisheng exclaimed in surprise: “When did you unlock the handcuffs?”
Gu Tang looked down, shaking the rose gold handcuffs, then clicked them shut on Jiang Huaisheng’s wrists: “You mean these? Poorly designed, very easy to open.”
Jiang Huaisheng tried, but he couldn’t open them. He said angrily: “What did you learn abroad, how to be a thief?”
Gu Tang said: “Don’t put it so harshly. Labor is expensive abroad, learning more skills isn’t a bad thing. You know, I’ve always been good at learning.”
When he was in the country, he lived in the villa near the Jiang family’s old mansion for a long time. Servants did everything, and he didn’t have to worry about anything except studying.
The skills he learned, besides the compulsory subjects, were mostly arts or sports, such as music, chess, calligraphy, painting, horse riding, archery, golf, tennis…
However, Jiang Huaisheng’s health wasn’t good, and his tennis skills were average, as he couldn’t practice for long periods.
Jiang Huaisheng learned tennis not for his health, but because, like golf, it was considered an elegant and luxurious upper-class social sport.
Older people played more golf, while children and young people played more tennis.
In the Jiang family, the prevailing view Gu Tang encountered was that learning was purely utilitarian. No one would tell a child to study hard to become a useful member of society, to contribute to scientific research and make the future of humanity better.
Learning was entirely self-serving, for one’s own benefit. There was no need to learn anything that wasn’t beneficial.
After going abroad, to enjoy the same level of service would cost a fortune. Gu Tang only lived with that host family for three years, moving out to live on his own for the remaining two.
Living alone abroad, he learned to change light bulbs, unclog drains, replace toilets, assemble various mechanical tools, and of course, pick locks.
These handcuffs were just for fun, not the real deal, very easy for him to open.
Thinking of the views he was exposed to as a child, Gu Tang thought that the Jiang family’s teachings weren’t wrong in the eyes of many adults. Some children, after growing up and encountering setbacks in society, would think, if only their parents had made them learn more skills when they were young.
People grew up and became the adults they once hated. Gu Tang understood this because he was no longer a child, but a mature adult.
Adults were different from children, they didn’t need to be naive or childlike. In some ways, the Jiang family’s education might make one more outstanding, mature, successful, and enviable than most people.
Even in the Jiang family, those who naturally subscribed to this philosophy didn’t feel any pain, but were proud of it.
But he thought, people were always like this, creatures who didn’t know contentment. Mature children had a different kind of pain.
Jiang Huaisheng asked: “What are you smiling about?”
Gu Tang touched his face: “Was I smiling just now?”
He moved closer, using Jiang Huaisheng’s eyes as a mirror, looking at his tiny reflection.
This magnified face was even more striking. The latter’s breath hitched, then he reacted: “Are you making fun of me?”
“Of course not,” Gu Tang said, “You know I’m always honest, I don’t like lying.”
So, if it was something he couldn’t say, he would choose to remain silent. This was why he seemed increasingly quiet in the eyes of others. Because the truth was often unpleasant and could cause trouble.
“I was just thinking about what I learned. This world is actually a giant child psychology experiment. What everyone ultimately pursues are the things they longed for in childhood.”
Gu Tang lost his beloved father and grandparents at a young age, then watched his dependent mother start a new family, neglecting and using him.
So, what he longed for most was a warm family, someone who would unconditionally support and favor him, no matter what happened, whether he was poor or rich, healthy or disabled.
During his studies, Gu Tang had encountered many patients. Almost everyone in this world was sick, some seriously, some with mild symptoms.
A few could live under the sun without any shadows, but those were the lucky ones blessed by heaven, one in a million.
He knew very well that Jiang Huaisheng seemed to have everything in the eyes of ordinary people, but his frail body held him back, so he had a desperate yearning for a healthy body.
This was why he was so certain he could control Jiang Huaisheng with the contract back then.
As for their entanglement later on, it was somewhat beyond Gu Tang’s expectations.
He tucked Jiang Huaisheng’s hair behind his ear and looked into his eyes: “Why do you think I ran away without a word back then?”
“Don’t change the subject.” When interacting with others, Jiang Huaisheng always held the initiative, but with Gu Tang, he felt like he was always being led by the latter.
But he really wanted to know the answer to this new question.
“Why else? You’re a coward! You only know how to run away.”
Gu Tang readily admitted: “I was young and immature.”
His fingertip touched Jiang Huaisheng’s thin lips, tracing down to his Adam’s apple, then along his collarbone to his left chest.
The heart was like an engine, constantly beating, working tirelessly, connected to every blood vessel in the body.
Gu Tang said: “In Western legends, women were created from men’s ribs, a part of their bodies. In our country, there’s also a saying, ‘love to the bone marrow.’ This is the highest praise for love. I didn’t give you a rib, but I gave you my bone marrow. That’s our relationship.”
Jiang Huaisheng didn’t say anything, then heard Gu Tang continue: “But I ran away back then because you felt like a vampire, clinging to me, it was fatal, I was afraid of being drained dry by you.”
“When did I suck your blood?”
“A drop of semen, ten drops of blood.”
Jiang Huaisheng, his hands bound, arched his back and slammed his forehead against Gu Tang’s.
“Dong,” a very clear sound of collision. This was clearly a mutually destructive act.
But Gu Tang’s forehead was clearly harder than his, and Jiang Huaisheng was only hurting himself.
Gu Tang poked the young master’s cheek: “Okay, think of it as a compliment.”
He pressed against Jiang Huaisheng, his voice a bit hoarse: “Don’t move so much early in the morning. I just applied medicine yesterday, don’t start a fire.”
In fact, Gu Tang was usually quite restrained in this aspect. Yesterday was purely because it was their first time after a long separation, so he used physical intimacy to vent his emotions.
After venting enough, he felt it was enough.
In front of Jiang Huaisheng, Gu Tang unlocked his ankle chain with the key and wrapped it around the young master instead.
His slender fingers shook the bells: “It looks better on you.”
After he finished his breakfast, he unlocked Jiang Huaisheng: “Eat, Young Master.”
Jiang Huaisheng was full and didn’t want to eat.
Gu Tang reheated the cold breakfast in the microwave for two minutes, then pulled the limping young master back, held him on his lap, and like a kindergarten teacher, brought the spoon to his mouth, coaxing gently: “Open your mouth, baby.”
Jiang Huaisheng’s face flushed red, then he bit the spoon and ate the soft vegetable porridge.
He wasn’t being coaxed into eating, it was purely for his health, that’s all!
